


Falling Leaves of a Family Tree

by LitsyKalyptica



Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies), The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Alcohol, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Asexual Character, Asexual Relationship, Bagginshield's Big Fat Gay Wedding, Beautiful and dirty rich, Big Brother Fíli, Boys in Skirts, Brotherly Love, Cinderella Elements, College, Cute/Angst, Dysfunctional Family, F/M, Family Secrets, Feminist Themes, Heavy Angst, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Kíli Is a Little Shit, Love, M/M, Private School, Rags to Rich Bitch, References to Drugs, Rivalry, Secrets, Self-Destruction, Social Pyramid, Tattoo Artist Fili, Tattoos, Toxic Relationships, True Love, but he's going through hard times, like an actual shit, runaway teen, touchy subjects, troubled teen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-12
Updated: 2015-08-11
Packaged: 2018-04-14 06:35:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,927
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4554438
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LitsyKalyptica/pseuds/LitsyKalyptica
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If Kili can't stop running away from home, maybe staying with his uncle will be a happy change of scenery. But Fili is worried about his brother's sudden erratic behavior, and won't let him go alone.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Falling Leaves of a Family Tree

**Author's Note:**

> It's been so long since I've posted here but, after developing characters and relationships some, I've come back with more of my favorite modern dwarf babies! Hope you enjoy :)

Christmas night was the third and time Kili ran away.

“He’s causing grief for everyone,” their father had huffed when he thought Fili would sympathize with him. It was an honest, if insensitive, comment. Family that had come to visit the small home for Christmas found themselves staying much longer than anticipated. Long days were spent with aunts and uncles and cousins, and family friends called an aunt or uncle or cousin, out looking for the teen on the run. Fili wanted to be out with them, but his mother had insisted he stay home and focus on his winter coursework. He’d hate to bother her with how little of it was getting done with all the extra anxiety. But he couldn’t be mad at Kili.

A small search party –some of the last of the family to come back the fifth day— had arrived home at midnight. Everyone was out late but none so late as Fili’s mother and father, and Dwalin, and Thorin, who still did not return. Fili tried not to listen to his parents as they argued.

“Trust me, he’ll get an earful when he gets home, but for now I just want Kili home.”

“If he really wants out of here, maybe we shouldn’t try to drag him back.”

“Don’t start that again!” Dis hissed, throwing down her coat on the arm of the sofa, careful not to hit a sleeping Bifur. Sleeping bodies were scattered through the house, sleeping on sofas and air mattresses and sharing beds with family living in the house. While Kili was gone, Fili’d had the chance to sleep in his bed on his own, but he didn’t find himself sleeping much. Nights were quiet.

“He’s probably shacking up with one of his delinquent friends.”

“I went and talked with all his friends,” Dwalin countered, plopping down heavily next to Fili at the table. “Any word from your brother, lad?”

Fili shook his head. “Nothing yet.” He tried to believe that if Kili couldn’t be found, he’d at least let one of them know he was alright. But that was looking less and less likely.

Dwalin sighed and rubbed his head –he was tired, but he was growing sick of the air mattress on the boys’ bedroom floor. And it looked like Vili and Dis would be at each other for a while yet. “You still working at that tattoo parlor?”

Fili nodded slowly, head ducked low to his laptop. He had an assignment due in the morning and he’d hardly gotten half of it done. His marks were dependent on perfect scores but he felt sick to his stomach. He probably should’ve eaten dinner, or not eaten lunch. “I’m doing cleaning right now but I just got approved to start inking in the New Year.”

His uncle, in name if not in blood, patted him on the shoulder. “We’ll find him, laddie,” he whispered to the young man next to him. Fili wanted to believe him; and part of him did believe him, but he was just dreading when Kili would do it again.

“I wish I could be mad at him.”

Dwalin huffed a laugh and settled in the chair. “I’m sure some of us are mad enough for you.” But if any of the other visiting relatives were angry with the teen for disappearing, it was overridden by worry for his safety.

* * *

 

Dis got a call from Thorin at two in the morning. She put him on speaker, and dreaded the worst.

“I found him.”

Her hand flew to her chest as relief overwhelmed her. “Oh, thank god,” she breathed. Fili heard it from the table, and he eagerly abandoned his work to get closer and hear what was going on. “How is he, where was he hiding out?”

“He texted me to tell me he was at a youth shelter in the city.”

The shock and confusion in the room was almost tangible.

“I went and picked him up, but he refuses to go home.” Thorin paused for a tense moment, as if he did not want to pass on the rest of this new information. But at last, he followed the good news up with, “He says if I try to bring him back then he’ll bolt again, and never come back.”

There was a long, unbearable silence as the news sank in. The last times Kili had run away, he just said he needed to get away for a bit, and against their father’s demands and their mother’s placating pleas, he’d go off to some unnamed friend’s house until he could bear to be home again. But this time, he hadn’t come home, and it seemed that he wouldn’t. “So… what are we gonna do?” Fili did feel for his poor mother, looking so uncertain, so lost.

Thorin sighed heavily enough to be heard at the house. “My hands are tied, it seems. I talked to him –had quite a long talk with him, trying to get him to budge— but we did come to a compromise. He says he won’t run away as long as he doesn’t have to… go back to the house. So I said that, as long as you agree to it, he can… come and live with me.”

Dis paused for as long as she could. She didn’t want to say yes; she didn’t want to send her son away to live somewhere else. But if he was so unhappy that he’d rather live life on the run than at a safe and loving home –for a reason she just could not fathom— she could afford to send him for a few months to stay with her trusted brother. Thorin had stayed out later than any of them, just on the off chance he would somehow come across the runaway somewhere downtown. And he was willing to take the unruly teen into his home for however long Kili needed, generosity put on the spot. Maybe… for just a few months…

“I suppose the change of scenery will do him some good.”

* * *

In the proper morning, Dis went to ask Fili to help pack his brother’s things, but her elder son was still asleep. “He works himself so hard…” she sighed, opening the door quietly, just enough to get inside. Maybe she would ask him when he woke up.

She got to work on the younger’s side of the small room, gathering up his laptop and chargers and the like, and preparing herself for time away from her son when he didn’t want to stay with her anymore. She wiped at her tears to keep them from going with the rest of Kili’s things in the duffel bag.

‘ _Don’t bother sending his clothes. Not everything will fit in the car. I’ll get him new ones._ ’

So she didn’t pack the clothes, only the belongings she knew the teen would want with him at his uncle’s He wouldn’t be back for quite some time, now, though she prayed it wouldn’t be too long. She didn’t know how long she would last without her baby nearby.

‘Try to get him to keep in contact while he’s there. I won’t pester him but I want him to talk to me, if he won’t see me.’

“Everything packed?” her husband grunted from the open doorway. She hushed him.

“You’ll wake Fili,” she hissed back. She would still be burning from him after last night if the fire hadn’t been put out by her tears. She kept packing as noiselessly as she could. “Almost. Everyone else?”

“They’re waiting on you.”

“Where’s Thorin?”

“He took Kili to breakfast. Kid ran off without more than twenty bucks and didn’t eat yesterday. Plus your brother says it’ll keep him busy while everything is… arranged for him.”

She sighed and sniffed. “Try not to be angry with him. Either of them.”

“No, I’m grateful for Thorin and his patience and generosity. I just wish our kid hadn’t caused him so much trouble. And will continue to cause him trouble.”

She hushed him again, as his voice grew louder when he was so irritated. “Everyone will be on their way soon… I just hope he comes in to say goodbye. Or at least gets out of the car so I can hug him and remind him to be safe.”

“He’ll be fine as long as he stays out of trouble.” He shook his head; it was unlikely, and he wouldn’t hide his opinion on that. “We’ll see if he comes back any better than he left, if he comes back at all.”

“Of course he will!” And she had to quiet herself; Fili was starting to wake up. “Of course he will…”

Fili blinked against the mid-morning sunlight shining through his window; it took him a long moment to realize he’d been awoken by his parents’ voices. He sat up slowly, groggy, rubbing at his eyes. “Wha’ time is it…?”

Dis smiled softly at him. “About nine, nine-thirty. Go back to sleep, love.”

He shook his head and started to get up, unashamed that his mother was seeing him in his boxer shorts. He got dressed quickly as his parents watched on, and started gathering his things together. Dis blanched at the sight.

“Honey, what… What are you doing?” But she had a sinking feeling she already knew.

“I’m going with him.”

It was what she had feared; Dis’s breath hitched in her throat. “Oh, Fili, don’t—”

There was no room left for protest or questioning; he’d set most of his stuff aside before he’d gone to sleep. Laptop, wallet, phone, some clothes and his chargers, they all went into his own red bag. He packed what he could and decided to forsake the rest. If he needed anything, he could go without for a while. “I already talked to Uncle. He said it was perfectly alright with him, and he’d have another room made ready for me.”

“Well…” She didn’t know what to say. “It’ll be nice to have your own room, I suppose…”

“You’re gonna up and leave us too, huh?”

Fili groaned at his father’s comment but didn’t dignify it with the snark he wished to give. “I’m going for Kee’s sake. He’s been increasingly erratic and I wanna make sure he gets the… care he needs.”

Despite the thought of her only other child leaving, Dis did think this might be a good idea. Thorin worked long hours, and though family was always over, none of them were as familiar with Kili –nor probably so selflessly patient or attentive— as his older brother. Yes… this would be good for him.

“But you have school to go back to in January!”

“I’ll work it out with my new professors. If I explain the situation to them then they’ll probably allow for online instruction. And if not, then I’ll take the semester off. But I’ll go back in the fall.”

“You can’t take more time off than you already—”

“Vili, he wants to be there for his brother. Kili is… obviously going through some things right now: things I cannot understand because he won’t talk about it, but that doesn’t mean that something isn’t wrong. And he can get a job in a tattoo parlor, or somewhere else. I’m sure Thorin will have some part-time opportunities for you at Arkenstone.”

Fili nodded, grateful for his mother’s defense, and hugged her tight. He wasn’t exactly eager to uproot his life but Kili needed him, and with the younger’s recent history, he probably shouldn’t be left unattended…


End file.
